Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats.

Community Health Online Resource Center
This publically available and searchable databse is populated with practice-based resources to help you implement changes to prevent disease and promote healthy living in your community. Resources include webinars, model policies, toolkits, guides, fact sheets, and other practical materials.

Community Health ImprovementOur health and well-being are products of not only the health care we receive and the choices we make, but also the places where we live, learn, work, and play. Community health improvement (CHI) is a process to identify and address the health needs of communities. Because working together has a greater impact on health and economic vitality than working alone, CHI brings together health care, public health, and other stakeholders to consider high-priority actions to improve community health.

Social Determinants of Health: Know What Effects Health
This website provides CDC resources for SDOH data, tools for action, programs, and policy. They may be used by people in public health, community organizations, and health care systems to assess SDOH and improve community well-being.

Infographics:
CDC encourages the strategic use of infographics when the message is more visual in nature and requires more than data or charts to communicate successfully to the target audience.

Time to Scale Back
This infographic address the growth of portion sizes using hamburgers as an example. It includes suggestions for individuals and communities to scale back for healthier eating. Released June 2012.

The New (Ab)NormalThis infographic shows the increase in portion sizes for popular food. It includes suggestions for individuals and communities to reduce overeating when eating out. Released May 2012.

The More They Burn, The Better They LearnThis infographic focuses on the connections between physical activity and academic performance and encourages parents to help their kids be active. Released August 2012.

Go Light When You Grab a Bite
This infographic outlines how Americans have shifted their food spending between 1960 and 2011 and the impact that eating our meals away from home. Released January 2013.

Screen Time vs Lean TimeThis infographic focuses on the amount of time the average child, in key age groups, spends in front of a screen for entertainment purposes each day. It also provides tips for healthier activities and ways parents can limit screen time in the home. Released April 2012.

CDC Gateway to Health Communication and Social Marketing Audience Profiles
One of the key steps in the health communication and social marketing process is identifying the population segments that can benefit from a specific health behavior. The more you know about your primary segment, the better you can reach them with messages, activities and policies. CDC Audience Insights analyze different target audiences for public health so that you can more effectively communicate with them to influence their behavior.

CDC Verb Campaign Research ReportsVERB™ It’s what you do. was a national, multicultural, social marketing campaign coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Social marketing campaigns apply commercial marketing strategies to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to improve personal and social welfare. The campaign ran from 2002-2006.

The Built Environment Assessment Tool Manual
The Built Environment Assessment Tool (BE Tool) (an adaptation of MAPS) was designed to alleviate some of the challenges posed by the significant number of narrowly focused tools aimed at only one activity (walking), one subpopulation (older adults), or one public health area (inactivity). It was created as a collaborative enterprise across multiple areas of public health – health promotion, injury prevention, environmental health, etc. It is a direct systematic observation data collection instrument for measuring the core features and quality of the built environment related to behaviors that affect health, especially behaviors such as walking, biking, and other types of physical activity.

Social Vulnerability IndexIndex that uses U.S. Census variables at tract level to help local officials identify communities that may need support in preparing for hazards, or recovering from disaster.

Local School Wellness Policy
Document that guides a local educational agency or school district’s efforts to create supportive school nutrition and physical activity environments

CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity works to maintain health and prevent chronic disease by promoting healthy eating and active living for Americans of all ages. They work with state and local partners on community solutions to help increase healthy food choices and connect people to places and opportunities where they can be regularly active.

Current Practices in Healthy Food Retail: Small Stores
Five states working to increase the availability of healthy foods and beverages in small stores by using strategies such as improving retail practices for healthy foods or working with small store owners to improve the quality and variety of foods they stock.

Physical Activity Highlights
Highlights from four states that have implemented activity strategies, such as Complete Streets, comprehensive planning, physical activity in work sites, and Safe Routes to School.

CDC Sustainable Food
CDC envisions a food system that provides healthy, sustainable choices, minimizes environmental impacts, and serves as a model for the broader public health community. It is up to you, as a purchaser and consumer, to consider the impact of food from seed to table. Choosing local, healthy, environmentally responsible food helps promote personal health as well as the overall health of the community.

Parks: An Opportunity to Leverage Environmental Health
Do you know your local parks and recreation director? He or she could be a great public health ally. Parks and recreation departments align with environmental public health on many cross-cutting activities such as swimming pool inspections, mosquito control, rabies management, and food permits. Parks also provide children access to safe and healthy places to play. Furthermore, they can mitigate safety hazards by protecting land such as flood plains and unstable slopes from inappropriate development. More…

CDC Worksite Wellness Scorecard
The purpose of this manual is to assist employers with using The CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard (HSC) to assess their health promotion programs, identify gaps, and prioritize high-impact strategies to prevent heart disease, stroke, and related conditions.

HI-5: Health Impact in 5 Years
HI-5 highlights a list of non-clinical, community-wide approaches that have evidence reporting 1) positive health impacts, 2) results within 5 years, and 3) cost effectiveness and/or cost savings over the lifetime of the population or earlier.

Key Partnership

The American Planning Association’s Planning and Community Health Center has partnered with the American Public Health Association at the national level. This key partnership ensures that the conversations, lessons learned, and experiences of towns and cities across the country are part of the national agenda to prevent chronic diseases.